I Can’t Believe I’m Up This Early Sunday Links

We got back home from a concert at the wee hours; I’ll just say that Howard Levy is beyond amazing. But links hath murdered sleep, so here you are.

Verizon throws out the first pitch in Throttle Season. I think they must have been doing this while I was putting this post together because our ‘Net is running so slowly. Or maybe it’s the tentacle porn videos that webdominatrix is downloading. I keep telling her, stop talking to Heroic Mulatto, but like all children, she stubbornly refuses to listen to mom and dad.

The first of a new series of massively expensive military toys was rolled out. Do you know what would have been great? If it had been launched by Chevy Chase, and then fallen over.

In local Chicagoland news, this was embarrassing. Swiss Servator hardest hit.

Look, I’m as glad as anyone that McCain is about to be involuntarily term-limited, but Jesus Fucking H Presentable Christ, try to be a little more classy.

And finally, I love living in a world that has things like this in it.

Comments

256 responses to “I Can’t Believe I’m Up This Early Sunday Links”

  1. Rick C-137

    I’m up this early, but only cause the pay me.

    Also, there are a lot delays on that, the sort of delays that the private sector would not tolerate. The wastefulness of our military is astounding.

    1. I work the early shift, so I wake up early even on weekends.

      1. Rick C-137

        I work on Sunday, and my shift got moved back an hour, but I will say, getting to work an hour before most everyone else makes the day go quick

    2. straffinrun

      What’s the problem with delays? I demand electricity neutrality. Who cares if I use more? We should all pay the same.

      1. Rick C-137

        Forgive me, the coffee is still kicking in. I should have specified, the delays to the ford was my complaint

        1. straffinrun

          Figured you were off topic, but trying to pull it back to the LINKS PROVIDED. First comment *SMDH*

          1. straffinrun

            Ha. Sorry. Ignore that. Making myself laugh now.

          2. Rick C-137

            There’s links?

          3. I figured he was talking about the military equipment story.

          4. Rick C-137

            Ted gets it…

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Electricity neutrality? I’m positive that won’t work in the long term.

        1. Mad Scientist

          Don’t have such a negative attitude, Gustave,

          1. juris imprudent

            Maybe if you’d go with the flow you wouldn’t be in for such a jolt.

          2. Akira

            I’m shocked by the amount of bickering that goes on in this comment section.

          3. The Elite Elite

            *narrows gaze*

    3. Homple

      Aircraft carriers are now hyper expensive targets for the smart missiles, drones and torpedoes that keep getting cheaper and more sophisticated. Aircraft carriers will eventually go the way of the Dreadnought.

      1. Agent Cooper

        Once drones become ubiquitous in the Air Force, you won’t need as much deck space to house a ton of fighter jets.

  2. Rick C-137

    Oh and the hydraulic press stuff is really fun to watch.

      1. Homple

        Ugh. I saw the original when I was eight or so and cannot unsee that part.

    1. westernsloper

      Yes, the hydraulic press channel is awesome.

    2. Tundra

      Finns are weird.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Very strange. It is fun to call them a Scandinavian and watch them get bent out of shape.

        “We are nordic, ya? But not Scandinavian like you Swedes and Norwegians”

  3. xenophon

    “But its path to this day was not always smooth. The ship cost $2 billion more than the initial $11 billion estimate and took two years longer than expected to finish because of problems with the new catapults. Even now, it will require an additional four years of trials before deployment, costing $780 million more, according to a Government Accountability Office report.”

    How many drones is $13.78 billion?

    1. Rick C-137

      Enough for a good Zurg Swarm, at least.

    2. westernsloper

      The, will require an additional four years of trials before deployment, part is what had me shaking my head the most. The time and cost overruns are ops normal. I did not know it took four years of sea trials after the damn thing was built though.

    3. mikey

      And that doesn’t include the cost of the rest of the battle group that exists just to protect the carrier. Then you figure in that least half the carrier’s airwing is air defese (protect that $11bn) and tankers and that very expensive spear has a pretty small pointy end considering.

      1. LT_Fish

        Still….it’s a factor of what you get for a mobile airfield and two+ air squadrons off any coast in the world.

        Yes it’d be great to be able to use drones for everything (they’re testing a carrier-capable fighter drone right now) – but we’re just not there yet.

        That said…I’ve got some ideas about organic, floating airfields, but we’re probably not going to be able to get anywhere with that for a while 🙂

  4. Rick C-137

    I think the math is off on this one

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40648351

    1. straffinrun

      BBC doesn’t have an opinion section? Just kidding.

      1. Rick C-137

        I just wish they had a comment section, the derp would break the site in no time.

  5. Rick C-137

    Badass old man, shitty mask, ambivalent employees. I tell you this story has it all

    http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/07/22/starbucks-armed-robber-customer-wxp-hln.hln

    1. xenophon

      That was so satisfying to watch. I don’t think I would’ve whacked the guy with a chair, personally … that could’ve easily ended with someone getting shot. Cowardice or practicality? You be the judge.

      1. Rick C-137

        I’m going to err on the side of practical. Anyone who tries to rob a Starbucks in a transformer mask is not to be taken seriously

      2. EvilSheldon

        Apparently it was a toy gun, and grandpa spotted it.

        Also, CNN didn’t show the full video. Here it is. http://bit.ly/2vtY47O

        At the end, you can see gramps get the knife away from Optimus Prime and stab him several times, then I’m pretty sure he cuts his throat. That dude was not having any.

        1. Rick C-137

          B A S E D
          A
          S
          E
          D

        2. mr simple

          That’s a lot of blood at the end. I’m surprised they both survived.

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      Do my eyes deceive me or does the back of the man’s shirt actually read “Bad Mother Fucker”?

      Clothes make the man indeed!

      1. Rick C-137

        I believe you are correct

      2. Rufus the Monocled

        And in flip flops!

    3. Tundra

      Jesus christ, that woman’s voice is terrible. She talks like a 13 year old.

    4. Holger-da-Dane

      Imagine the story if he had a gun, instead of a chair. Of course it wouldn’t have been on cnn.

  6. When has John McCain had class?

    1. westernsloper

      Ya, I have not said one thing about the guy getting sick because I don’t really have anything nice to say, but what Dr Ward said is not something I find overly harsh. If McCain can’t do his job, he should step down. Maybe the timing of her remarks was is in poor taste but I think they were in response to questions she was asked. I think she should have also pointed out how it seems we have a class system, where in the political class gets treatment with medicine as well as the law that are not afforded to many Americans. John McCain has never done one thing since his POW days that I know of that is worthy of all the praise he gets. Senators aren’t fucking royalty.

      I am a supporter of term limits to stop things like this as well as the ridiculous spectacle of people like Strom Thurman and Robert Byrd. Do a few terms and go the hell home. Elected government should not be a lifelong career.

      1. juris imprudent

        Elected government should not be a lifelong career.

        Hmm, perhaps a lottery involving anyone holding office over 10 years, a lottery where DEATH is the prize! And you get 1 entry for every year over the limit – just to make the odds a little more fair.

      2. DenverJ

        Few problems with term limits:
        I should be able to vote for the same person over and over again if I want, and it empowers (even more) unelected staffers and bureaucrats.

        1. DOOMco

          I don’t really like the idea of a career politician. at the same time, I would hate to force out the liberty minded people who are in office right now. Amashs replacement might not be like Amash. It feels like a trap. good intentions, not great results.

  7. straffinrun

    “I’m a doctor. The life expectancy of the American male is not 86. It’s less,” Ward said in the August 2016 interview, adding later: “He’s become pretty sour. A pretty sour old guy.”

    He was buried in the pet cemetery in 2001.

    1. leonadasiv

      I’m gonna quibble with this life expectancy crap. We should be asking what the life expectancy of someone is, given that they make it to 83. Life expectancy is not some sort of metric by which you have “expired” and anything more is borrowed time. Life expectancy takes in the fact that young people die before their time. You know you would think a doctor would understand that.

      1. whiz

        I was troubled by that, too. The life expectancy of someone who is 80 is around 88 or 89.

  8. In local Chicagoland news, this was embarrassing. Swiss Servator hardest hit.

    Organized by the same people who did the Fyre Festival, right?

    1. Rick C-137

      Not enough lord of the flies for that.

  9. straffinrun

    Prostitute Who Calls Herself the “Million Dollar Ho” Just Arrested

    A prostitute in Florida was arrested on Tuesday night after she told an undercover cop that she’s known as the, quote, “Million Dollar Ho” . . . and then she offered to perform sexual services for $40

    1. Rick C-137

      So, you’re saying it was coupon day?
      Do prostitutes takes coupons, asking for a friend…

      1. straffinrun

        Should see what she does for group on day.

        1. Rick C-137

          +1 frat party?

          1. straffinrun

            *Nifong circles the parking lot*

          2. Rick C-137

            What a putz

    2. The Elite Elite

      That’s a “million dollar ho?” I wouldn’t have sex with that if she was offering it for free! *barf*

      1. Rick C-137

        +1 Would not have a member in any ho that would have me

      2. straffinrun

        Thomes subsequently lifted her dress, exposing her vagina to the undercover cop (who then gave a takedown signal to fellow officers who arrested Thomes for prostitution).

        1. The Elite Elite

          So, that was the cop’s feeling about that as well.

      3. AlexinCT

        She is a million dollah ho, because that’s what the doctor and psychiatrist bills will cost you to get over the damage she causes…

    3. EvilSheldon

      Jeez, Steven Tyler has really come down in the world…

    4. Agent Cooper

      She has many hands, Jerry.

  10. Rick C-137

    TW: The Root

    TL:DR: Whycome Sanders is so interested in wypipo when there are other dem bases to appeal to.

    http://www.theroot.com/bernie-sanders-black-women-problem-1796995081?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=The_Root_facebook

    1. Sour Kraut

      Whycome ____ is so interested in wypipo

      This is every Root article.

      1. Rick C-137

        You make a compelling argument.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    *blows up paper bag, pops it*

  12. The Late P Brooks

    If it had been launched by Chevy Chase, and then fallen over.

    Is that a Deal of the Century reference? Because that movie was fucking awesome.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      1970s culture has apparently been totally lost.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        It would be a lot easier if SNL wasn’t so aggressive on getting YouTube videos deleted.

      2. MikeS

        +1 hurt back for nothing

      3. SP

        Much of it deserves to be lost. (I’m looking at you, disco.)

  13. The Late P Brooks

    she’s known as the, quote, “Million Dollar Ho” . . . and then she offered to perform sexual services for $40

    That’s a busy beaver.

    1. Rick C-137

      -Narrows vulva-

    2. DOOMco

    3. juris imprudent

      Woodn’t

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Pandora just dropped this in me ear.

    1. DenverJ

      Kinda catchy. That band may have a future.

    1. straffinrun

      ‘Get out. We don’t want you in our community. You are a culture vulture and you are not welcomed here. Your business will fail because you have disrespected the entire community. No one wants you here and we will not stop protecting until you shut down and go back to wherever you came from.’

      Daily Fail fail or failing flailer?

    2. “The area has been rapidly gentrifying in recent years and the owner – Canadian former corporate lawyer Becca Brennan – has been accused of racism for trading on the neighborhood’s African American roots.”

      If you steal the African-American’s culture, they’ll not be able to have a culture, anymore.

    3. “‘Yes, that bullet hole-ridden wall was originally there and, yes, we’re keeping it,’ it read.

      The ‘bullet-hole ridden wall’ is actually a fake. It was originally damaged and Ms Brennan decided to make a feature out of it – a decision she later admitted was ‘cheeky’.”

      Originally damaged how?

      1. leonadasiv

        Stop trying to make words mean things, it makes you look silly.

    4. Tundra

      Keep our neighborhoods shitty!

    5. Sour Kraut

      Sorry but that’s what happens. Urban ghettoes become “adventure” playgrounds for the new rich. Look at the bright side you all vote for the same political candidates.

    6. Rhywun

      the neighborhood’s African American roots

      lolwut?

      /A Jew, Dutchman, or Indian

    7. Holger-da-Dane

      The real irony is that the pictured signs were likely all printed out and taped to shit by white folks indistinguishable from those running the bar. But because they were gentrifying there first, feel like they’re genuinely in touch with the esthetic of the community.

  15. PieInTheSKy

    So as a lowly eastern European not versed in the fine details of the fascinating world of your American Rules of Intersectionality, I have a question. It was touched upon in this fair comment section about a feminist named Lacey Green who got banished from her community for dating an anti-SJW youtuber and saying one should listen to the opinions of the other side. For some reasons beyond the grasp of mortal men, I keep tuning into stuff about this Lacey creature on the interwebz, and now apparently some people defend her of the inevitable accusation of racism thrown against all people not of the very woke variety, by the fact that she is a minority herself (not that this would have any relevance to the rational mind, but I digress ). She is apparently half white and half Persian. No my question is since when the intersectional hell are Iranians not white? I may, admittedly, have missed the memo

    1. grrizzly

      This is simple. Iranians are indistinguishable from Arabs, who are Muslims. And being critical of Islam is racist. See? It was easy.

    2. Rick C-137

      Since they are arabs.

      But seriously, they get qualified that way by the victims studies departments because they are from a culture that the US has ‘oppressed’ (see the history of CIA meddling), and also because they aren’t from pure Aryan stock, seriously, these people would get along great with racial purist.

      1. PieInTheSKy

        Well iranians had empires for thousands of years they are not historically oppressed. Or does old history only count for the crusades?

        1. Rick C-137

          Only as long as the most recent generation if the typical prog examples serve.

          Although the crusades do serve as a sort of touchstone for them as well.

          1. Holger-da-Dane

            I think the phrase you’re looking for is “cherry picking to suit the narrative.”

      2. AlexinCT

        Iranians are nor arabs: they are aryans

      3. Gilmore

        they are arabs.

        persians ain’t arabs ain’t kurds ain’t turks

        they’s all moohammy-lovin’ ragheads from the POV of the average ‘murican, but from their own perspective they’re as different as Spaniards and Slavs. With the added bonus that they all hate the shit out of one another.

      4. juris imprudent

        Since they are arabs.

        You say that around some Iranians I hope you are ready to defend yourself from the ass-kicking they will lay on you.

        1. Bob

          Fighting people over something so petty sounds like something an Arab would do.

    3. Waterfall Insurance

      It was to become official for the 2020 census. But that was when Hillary was the next president. https://www.google.com/amp/www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/24/census-bureau-explores-new-middle-eastnorth-africa-ethnic-category/%3famp=1

      1. Waterfall Insurance

        They aren’t white they are Mena now.

      2. PieInTheSKy

        Well can eastern Europeans get our own category? I want some oppression points myself. It helps arguments when you can call people racist for disagreeing

        1. Waterfall Insurance

          It’s your punishment for giving up on communism. Your white and finally a part of Western civilization but it isn’t cool anymore.

    4. Suthenboy

      Brown people dude. Iranians are brown people.

      I have no idea what ‘white’ even means anymore. Skin color? Genes? Culture? In some contexts ‘white’ seems to mean ‘not a commie’. All I know is it is bad.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        Iran literally means “Land of the Aryans”.

        NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!

        1. AlexinCT

          Doh, you already did that.. My bad.

  16. Count Potato

    Is it OK if I post a story from MInnesota? I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But this is nuts:

    http://freebeacon.com/issues/minnesota-schools-adopt-transgender-toolkit-kindergartners/

    1. “… tells teachers to ask kids what their “preferred pronouns” are.”

      But…they don’t learn what “pronouns” are until first grade.

      Teachers should ask what the kid’s favorite intersections are.

      1. Interjections, I mean.

    2. Tundra

      What can I say? We want to out-do Portland and Seattle.

      1. Tundra

        Damn, it’s worse than I thought.

        Teachers also should avoid calling grade school children “boys and girls,” because the phrase is not “inclusive.”

        “Teachers could address students as ‘students’ and ‘scholars’ to be inclusive as opposed to ‘boys and girls,’” the guide states.

        Other tips include not picking a homecoming or prom king and queen—instead students should nominate “prom ambassadors,” “homecoming court,” or “homecoming royalty.”

        The department explains, “Language around gender is evolving.”

        “In some communities, the term ‘Two-Spirit’ is used for an American Indian person possessing a blend of male and female spirits,” the toolkit states. “The term honors people of native heritage. Two-spirit students traditionally do not seek out medical transition nor use the language of transgender nor gender nonconforming to describe their gender.”

        ಠ_ಠ

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Two spirit.. whiskey and vodka?

          1. Akira

            No, it’s supposed to be Scotch and vodka.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Fall of the West.

          Communism by other means.

        3. westernsloper

          The department explains, “Language around gender is evolving.”

          Is it now. Can we still use the term “chicks with dicks”? Let’s ask these guys.

          1. Heroic Mulatto

            The proper term is “trap”.

    3. Suthenboy

      It will eventually kill itself off. Crazy can just go so far before it becomes dysfunctional and people start shying away from it. That cant happen fast enough to suit me.

      1. AlmightyJB

        I’m not so sure.

        1. AlexinCT

          I am with JB here. It has already gotten so far past the crazy point I thought the whole house of idiot cards would collapse, and instead these people keep saying that they are not getting their way because they are not doubling down on their crazy ideas…

  17. The Late P Brooks

    NYT goes with the tearjerker narrative

    They settled on “AMERICAN NIGHTMARE.”

    Mr. Dore insisted that the headline was not a judgment. “There’s no way in the world we’re going to lecture the United States about its Constitution or the right,” he said.

    But the headline captured many Australians’ dismay over what, to them, seemed a peculiarly American phenomenon. There are tight restrictions on firearm ownership in Australia, and though police officers there carry guns, fatal police shootings are relatively rare.

    That morning, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared on television to ask, “How can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from police be shot like that?”

    So many questions.

    1. Suthenboy

      “How can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from police be shot like that?”

      Mr. Turnbull, meet Mohammed Noor.

  18. EvilSheldon

    God, but I love Finns. I just love them.

  19. Count Potato

    “Felon named ‘Fellony’ charged with new felonies”

    http://nbc4i.com/2017/07/20/felon-named-fellony-charged-with-new-felonies/

    1. PieInTheSKy

      Was it a judge named Judge leading the trial?

    2. AlmightyJB

      He’ll be out in a year.

  20. Count Potato
    1. PieInTheSKy

      Catholics have better hats

      1. Akira

        You know who else had cool hats?

  21. The Late P Brooks

    White boy privilege. Women children and designated victim classes hardest hit.

    Women and nonwhite men don’t have it quite as easy.

    If boys will be boys, then girls must be grown-ups, whose job it is to protect men from their worst impulses. Witness every administrative body, from middle school to Congress, that has decided that it’s easier and more culturally acceptable to police girls’ and women’s clothing than it is boys’ behavior.

    If these goddam Peter Pan impersonators don’t grow up and get serious, who will swoop down on on his flying unicorn and carry the princess away to the fairytale palace?

    1. Count Potato

      What a crap editorial. That’s the only paragraph to back up “Women and nonwhite men don’t have it quite as easy”.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        But pimpin’ ain’t easy.

      2. AlmightyJB

        Yes, she is so oppressed. Society treats her and her white girlfriends just like a poor, uneducated, inner city black men. Swing-lowwww, sweet chariot. Let’s break free our chains and get those white devils my brothers in oppression.

    2. The Elite Elite

      If boys will be boys, then girls must be grown-ups

      http://m.imgur.com/3vKJqc7?r

    3. Rufus the Monocled
      1. AlmightyJB

        Former fiance? What could have happened?

    4. Gilmore

      Sundays are when the NYT turns the ‘Tard-dial to eleven. Its a completely different audience to the weekly paper; more suburban, more brunchy, more proggy-middle-aged-woman.

  22. Tundra

    Whoopsie!

    Minneapolis made a significant financial investment in Mohamed Noor.

    The officer who fatally shot Justine Damond graduated in 2015 from the city’s accelerated police cadet program. The seven-month training is a quicker, nontraditional route to policing aimed at helping those who already have a college degree enter law enforcement.

    1. Rick C-137

      What was his degree in, cause it sure wasn’t in something useful

      1. CPRM

        He’s Somali, so we have it narrowed down to degrees not needed to build roads.

        1. AlmightyJB

          Ba-doom-doom

        2. Rick C-137

          Fair enough

        3. juris imprudent

          It would be hysterical if he actually was a civil engineer graduate.

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      Had he completed the full training, he would have know to say the magic words: “The suspect made a furtive movement towards her waistband. I felt threatened.”

      1. straffinrun

        You’re a knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
        base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
        hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
        lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
        glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
        one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
        bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
        the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
        and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
        will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
        the least syllable of thy addition.

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          Fair enough.

        2. AlmightyJB

          Flattery will get you everywhere

          1. straffinrun

            I’m just not getting the hang of it yet.

          2. AlmightyJB

            Maybe being more concise will help.

          3. straffinrun

            Methink’st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.

            Better?

          4. AlmightyJB

            Yeah, that’s very hawt.

      2. Rick C-137

        That is indeed the great incantation, a sort of magick that screens all actions and obscures all criticism…

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          Listen, it’s quite simple: if you don’t want to get shot like a thug, don’t report a suspected rape like a thug.

    3. Gustave Lytton

      The love of credentialism continues. Only a moron would think that a fast track for policing is desirable. Shake and bake decision making from a shake and bake officer.

    4. Holger-da-Dane

      I have it on good authority that training and a badge is the magic that separates “responsible enough to carry a gun” from the rest of us.

  23. Count Potato

    “‘Made in America.’ So What?

    About 80 percent of what goes into a Toyota Camry sold in the United States is made in the United States, which is a lot more than in some “American” cars. About 70 percent of a 2011 Honda Civic was American-made, while only about 2 percent of a Chevy Aveo from the same year was of North American origin. (Weird thing: The country-of-origin breakdown often is given in U.S. and Canadian content — is Canada a foreign country or isn’t it?) Toyota gets a fair amount of mileage out of advertising that the trucks it sells in Texas are made in Texas, to heck with the other 49 states.”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449762/made-america-not-important-21st-century

    1. CPRM

      Import rules for trucks were started by a trade war about chickens. Government history so dumb you couldn’t make it up.

      1. DOOMco

        interesting.

    2. Tundra

      Great article. Thanks for linking.

    3. Gilmore

      The country-of-origin breakdown often is given in U.S. and Canadian content — is Canada a foreign country or isn’t it?)

      Not according to NAFTA.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Then whycome I have to do piles of paperwork for anything I’m shipping into Canada? Including NAFTA certificates?

        1. Gilmore

          because rules, man.

          i don’t really know the details of NAFTA. my research-analyst life covered booze, which can’t even cross state lines without The Man getting involved.

          i assume its because if you want to be a participant in the NAFTA market you have to register as such?

          iow, its not a ‘free’ “free market”. its probably more like the way selling Weed works: bazillions of laws that ensure market participation is strictly controlled.

  24. Count Potato

    “At the same time that carry permits have increased at an astonishing rate, violent crime has decreased, and concealed-carry permit holders remain remarkably law-abiding. From 2007 to 2015, murder rates decreased by 12.5 percent and “overall violent crime fell by 18 percent.” At the same time, “the percentage of adults with permits soared by 190 percent.” And yet despite that growth, available data still indicate that permit holders are substantially more law-abiding than the police. For example, using data from Florida and Texas, Lott found that “permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth of the rate for police officers.”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449754/concealed-carry-permits-increasing-good-america

    1. westernsloper

      For example, using data from Florida and Texas, Lott found that “permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth of the rate for police officers.

      That is a very telling statistic there.

      1. Suthenboy

        Yeah, saying that someone is more law abiding than the average police officer isnt really saying much.

      2. Holger-da-Dane

        I wonder if that rate is skewed by a difference in accountability standards.

    2. Suthenboy

      And yet every time some place considers making their gun laws more lax we get screeches and howls about the coming apocalypse.

      1. Count Potato

        And every time some place makes their guns laws way more restrictive, such as Connecticut and New York after Newtown, we don’t see a massive decrease in crime.

        1. Akira

          But I’m sure some Ivy League dipshit will come out with some “synthetic state” social science gobbledygook to argue that crime is lower than it “would have been without the new laws”.

  25. commodious spittoon

    DON’T ANY OF YOU PEOPLE SLEEP??

  26. westernsloper

    Metallica fan loses car for four days

    “The car has US Florida license plates, a small Canadian flag affixed to the door frame, and a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker.”

    1. AlmightyJB

      Trifecta

    2. Aus

      “In another bonus, the car park waived the charge for four days of parking, only charging Mr Strickland for one day.”

      That was nice of them. For all the noobs out there, always check the Lost Ticket Fee if you keep your car in a garage for a few days. Some garages will have Lost Ticket Fees that are less expensive the 2 – 3 days worth of parking rates.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Oh, no!

    “We’re now opening the door, chipping away at what’s acceptable under cultural norms,” he said. “I think it could be a slippery slope, where you get more people and companies thinking, ‘This is okay.’”

    Since the decision, seven trademark applications for versions of the N-word, an offensive term aimed at black people, have been filed, PTO records show. Other applications include an epithet for people of Chinese descent, as well as a swastika symbol, the emblem of the German Nazi party.

    I’m going to trademark “N-word” and aggressively defend it. I’ll make the fuckers go back to using “nigger”.

    1. Count Potato

      “as well as a swastika symbol, the emblem of the German Nazi party.”

      No one does condescending and wrong at the same time like the NYT.

      1. Akira

        It’s almost like they don’t want to call the Nazi Party by its real name, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

    2. AlmightyJB

      I’m guessing it’s more likely the left will trademark this stuff to prevent people from using it.

      1. R C Dean

        Joke’s on them. Trademarks are use it or lose it.

  28. Count Potato

    “Senator Kid Rock. Don’t Laugh.

    Consensus formed at warp speed that Kid Rock’s possible U.S. Senate bid shouldn’t be taken seriously. That’s a huge mistake.”

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/23/kid-rock-run-senate-serious-michigan-analysis-215408

    1. AlexinCT

      Ain’t that how Trump ended up in the WH?

      1. DOOMco

        that article does ring a few bells from last year.

    2. Sour Kraut

      I’d prefer him over a great many senators. All Michiganders have to do is prefer him to Stabenow.

    3. juris imprudent

      Honestly, how is that any more ridiculous than Sen. Al Franken?

      1. Holger-da-Dane

        I guess it depends on how many felons allegedly vote and how many votes the race is won by?

  29. The Late P Brooks

    In a legal brief, the Department of Justice said if the Supreme Court struck it down, the PTO would be forced to trademark “the most repellent racial slurs and white-supremacist slogans.”

    I’m pretty sure you can’t trademark common-use terms. For example, I don’t think you can trademark “Dog Food” as a brand. It seems to me these people are panicking for no reason.

    1. R C Dean

      Robbing a Starbucks is riskier than I thought, that’s for sure.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe I’ll trademark “Limousine Liberal” hemorrhoid cream.

    “For when your butt really really hurts!”

    1. Suthenboy

      He is trying as hard as he can to kill the prog brand. Keep it up Billy.

      I have become convinced that none of the AGW preachers believe any of the shit they say.

  31. Count Potato

    “Certain people, however, are convinced that Rodney Stooksbury does not exist. This is because, even though Rodney Stooksbury was the 2016 Democratic congressional candidate in Georgia’s 6th District, nobody could ever actually seem to find a photograph of the guy. Or a campaign website. Or any campaign material. Or anyone who has actually met Rodney Stooksbury. News outlets tried to track down Stooksbury, to no avail. According to one investigation, “when reporters went to his town house in Sandy Springs, no one answered the door. When they inquired with the neighbors, no one had heard of him. He apparently had run no campaign, and had raised no money.” Stooksbury, if not a literal ghost, might as well have been one. In November, shortly before leaving to become Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Republican incumbent Tom Price was re-elected with approximately 62% of the vote. Rodney Stooksbury, whoever he was, came second. He received 38% of the vote.”

    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/ghost-candidates-are-not-acceptable

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Nice. Schumer is on ABC, yammering about hoe the Democrats are going to wrest control of the nation back from those Trumpista thugs and knaves.

    “We’re going after the evul kkkorporashunz. Everybody hates kkkorporations.”

    1. Suthenboy

      I thought Moobs was busy banning laundry detergent pods.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Powdered cocoa this week.

        1. juris imprudent

          Speaking of putting things up your nose

  33. Gilmore

    I love living in a world that has things like this in it.

    I was watching it with the sound off and it was taking forever, so i put the headphones on…. and its heavily accented guy talking. It sounded ‘northern’ and something between scandi and russian so i guessed “Finn”. I am proud i got it right. now i’m more interested in his talking than the crushing. He says “Continue” like ‘”Co-tin-ooo-ahh” with the accent on the oooo.

    i also love the ‘lets do stuff to stuff’ channels. Red Hot Nickel Ball the Slo Mo channel are similar.

    1. Aus

      Along those lines, “AvE” channel is great.

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWv6Pn_zP0rI6lgGt3MyfA

  34. Pope Jimbo

    What is worse than karaoke? A yuppie beer choir.

    Why do some people like to sing while drinking?

    1. Gilmore

      it feels good for people who are normally inhibited. its a ‘safe’ way to get a buzz out of public-performance.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Well go to your lawn to sing then. Your caterwauling is preventing my drinking buddies from hearing all my clever bon mots.

        1. Gilmore

          i personally despise karaoke. being forced to listen to incompetent people perform is like a special kind of hell for me. ‘nails on chalkboards’ aint even close.

          1. DOOMco

            There’s a bar that used to have it with a live band. But they had the mic hooked up to a speaker outside the bar. From outside that’s all you can hear.

          2. Gilmore

            There’s a bar that used to have it with a live band.

            lol

            despite what i said above (its still true!) …. I used to play in a band that did ‘live karaoke’ with the audience.

            I didn’t like it, but the band made like ~$4k a gig compared to your average ‘couple hundred bucks split 4-6 ways’

            it was all 1980s music. The band was called “Sexy American Girlfriend”.

          3. Tundra

            Awesome.

        2. Your next clever job not will be your first.

          1. Or bon mot, fucking auto-correct.

          2. juris imprudent

            Ted’s special hell – being condemned to having auto-correct screw up his every utterance.

          3. Gilmore

            you totally got hoisted by your…thing there. dude

            /keanu reeves dressed as shakespeare

  35. Aus

    Currently watching the most recent Dave Rubin video, I like it. Someone was asking for recommendations for media to expose to someone just opening up to pro-liberty ideas, I think this would be a good choice.

    “Dr. Mike Munger and Dave Rubin: Political Science, Trump, and Libertarianism (Full Interview)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FlQ1iDZxnE

  36. Count Potato

    “But without intending to, Twitter’s culture warriors also have created what might be described as a sort of crowdsourced ideological autocracy. And paradoxically, the public figures who are most consistently victimized by it are creatures of the left, such as Niki Ashton — since these are the same figures whose legitimacy as politicians, activists and writers depends on the moral judgments of Stupid Twitter-Land’s most ruthless enforcers”

    http://nationalpost.com/news/world/jonathan-kay-on-the-tyranny-of-twitter-how-mob-censure-is-changing-the-intellectual-landscape

    1. Rhywun

      paradoxically, the public figures who are most consistently victimized by it are creatures of the left

      That’s becuase the non-Left who haven’t been banned already have mostly abandoned it.

  37. Count Potato

    “Nobody realized this could happen, unless you count everyone who isn’t a moron or a dogma-blind partisan. Exceptions to free speech — like exceptions to rights in general — are applied disproportionately by the powerful against the less powerful. That’s the way the system works. Expecting other results is idiotic.”

    https://www.popehat.com/2017/06/28/shock-dismay-in-academia-at-scorpion-acting-like-scorpion/

      1. Count Potato

        This looks like a real website:

        https://shipyourenemiesglitter.com/

    1. “In several Republican-led state legislatures, representatives are pushing bills to suspend or otherwise discipline students who disrupt campus speakers — a proposal that, while nominally in defense of free speech, raises concerns about overbreadth and selective prosecution.”

      Concerns which could be met by more careful definitions of the crime – we know that there is such a thing as censorship-by-mob, the question is how to define the crime so that not everyone who spontaneously boos a speaker will be considered a criminal.

      Intent would be key – intent to disrupt the speech or stop others from hearing it. Thus, evidence of a coordinated effort to drown out the speaker would be useful in at least going after the leaders of the disruption.

    1. AlmightyJB

      This calls for war

      1. Count Potato

        The number of gun people at Vox is equal to the number of Popes who have used my bathroom.

        1. DOOMco

          I kinda assumed he was driving and saw some pick up with the gun version and was distraught.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          I tried!

          Maybe your stupid bathroom stat would be non-zero if you didn’t have that stupid rule about having to make a purchase first.

    2. Yusef drives a Kia

      Interesting

  38. Sour Kraut

    Kamala Harris: young, black, female – and the Democrats’ best bet for 2020?

    Look at all those boxes she ticks! How can she lose???

    However I did see this:

    At one point, Harris referred to the attorney general as “this guy” and his policies as “crazy”, saying: “The war on drugs was an abject failure … with this guy talking about reviving the war on drugs, it’s crazy.”

    Not sure what she means by “was”, but if she stays publicly against the war on drugs…I suppose she came one step closer to getting my vote.

    1. Yusef drives a Kia

      She is Fucking Dangerous, as are all California politicians these days,
      /Cali

    2. Count Potato

      I just can’t imagining progs ending the drug war.

      1. Akira

        They might chip away at it a little bit just because they feel compelled to take the anti-Trump position on every single issue, but I’m sure they’ll let it all stay put when they’re back in power.

    3. The Elite Elite

      young, black, female

      Is this a dating ad? I’m with it so far. Wish she was darker, but she’s still attractive.

      and the Democrats’ best bet for 2020?

      Oh. Hell no.

      1. It used to be that 35 (the minimum Presidential age) was automatically not-young to me. Now I’m more open-minded on the subject.

    4. Pope Jimbo

      Well, if I had to pick, I’d definately choose her over Amy Klobuchar who I keep getting told by local progs will be the next candidate.

      1. According to Wikipedia:

        “Klobuchar’s first foray into politics came after she gave birth and was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours later, a situation exacerbated by the fact that Klobuchar’s daughter was born with a condition where she could not swallow. That experience led Klobuchar to appear before the Minnesota State Legislature advocating for a bill that would guarantee new mothers a 48-hour hospital stay. Minnesota passed the bill and President Clinton later made the policy into a federal law.”

        1. Gilmore

          i recall seeing somewhere that the average overnight hospital stay costs hospitals something like “$10,000” in expense. I assume 80% of which is actually insurance and compliance related.

          it was back during the ACA (non)debates when people were talking about how to reduce healthcare costs. someone somewhere pointed out that in many cases it cost less to do certain surgeries than it did to simply house people in post-op recovery.

          (perhaps also because there were costs associated with follow up from surgery they wanted to bill separately from the surgery – iow, get them out as fast as possible, and when they complain of post-op concerns, bill insurers as a new problem rather than part of the original package)

          this could all be entirely wrong, but i think its telling that its so easy to believe, given the similar sorts of absurd cost-inflating effects we see in other heavily regulated areas.

          1. westernsloper

            I don’t know. The half ass’d search I did I could not find anything about her claims they discharged her when they shouldn’t have. I have a hard time believing any hospital in the US is going to knowingly discharge a newborn baby to go home and die, which is how I take her claims. I think there is more to that story. New mom scared of taking care of a baby? Who knows. I’m not buying it. It could be a billing thing, but I think the baby not being able to swallow would be a complication and be covered by whatever insurance she had, which I am pretty sure she had as a lawyer (I believe).

          2. Gilmore

            I have a hard time believing any hospital in the US is going to knowingly discharge a newborn baby to go home and die,

            yeah, i’m mostly with you.

            but then, I have also been to Woodhull

            they actually deleted the old set of reviews, which were epic, and these are just the new ones. the term “death trap” is actually correct. The park ave doctor who later treated me said, “I’m surprised you still have a leg” when i told him they were the people who’d originally stitched me up. Its where police take homeless people to die. that is literally the purpose of the hospital = a place to take dangerously ill people living on the streets and house them until they die. the staff make prison guards seem like charming hosts.

          3. R C Dean

            True fact: you have to consent to being discharged. It is extraordinarily difficult to force someone to leave a hospital if they don’t want to. Trust me on this.

            Klobuchar is lying. Big surprise.

          4. Pope Jimbo

            Klobuchar would never be where she is except that her father was a beloved sportswriter in the Twin Cities for years.

            I’m sure that her father knowing everyone in Minneapolis had no bearing whatsoever on her being hired at a bunch of law firms or being made a prosecutor in Minneapolis. Lot’s of random kids named Gunderson had the same sorts of things happen.

            But yeah, kicking out the daughter of a guy who could write a column that would fire up all of Minnesoda seems a bit far fetched.

    5. Gilmore

      But the moment she dwelled on most was a visit to the silk-screening room, where the women were manufacturing American flags.

      Holy fucking Hagiography, batman

      I think Jerry Bruckheimer films tend to have less hamhanded openings.

      1. What is it about America you don’t like, Gilmore?

        /sarc

        1. Apparently criminal justice is her great centrist strength!

    6. Obama with tits:

      “The issues are not simple, so the message is not going to be simple,” she said, rejecting any “monosyllabic” slogan, “but essentially it’s about telling the American public we see them”.

      I’m so sophisticated, I don’t believe in simplistic monosyllabic slogans, but here’s one anyway.

      And don’t let that slogan remind me of how the government under Obama was able to see our private communications and who knows what new horrors the surveillance state will roll out.

      “I see you”

    1. Rick C-137

      All the production values of Italian Spiderman!
      All the clever dialogue of a Michael Bay Blockbuster!

      Critics are raving

      “Would” -HM
      “What is this Filth?” -Irish

    2. DOOMco

      The archives strikes again!

    3. John Titor

      I see Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Batman is coming along well.

      1. Rick C-137

        Maximum lel

    4. Pan Zagloba

      Still better than America Chavez!

      It had a plot, it had action, sexy ladies and a punchline. At Marvel, this guy would be a star writer.

      1. John Titor

        Who’s worse, America Chavez or Riri Williams? I haven’t read superhero comics in around ten years because they managed to get even more retarded but the internet complains about them both so much. Also, not naming your female Iron Man Iron Maiden? Come on guys (admittedly it was probably a copyright issue).

        1. Pan Zagloba

          All I know about each is from Diversity & Comics guy, and America is way worse because she has no character beyond “lesbian Latina.” Riri has a badly written character, and his theory is that she’s a supervillain in the making without realizing it, which would at least be an interesting arc.

          I did recently pick up Marvel Unlimited subscription, I might check out some of their New! Female! Heroes! and compare them to Spider-Girl. Expected result: it will not be a flattering comparison to new talent.

        2. Pan Zagloba

          Oh, and obviously the word “maiden” is super-sexist so they can’t have it in the name of their character.

          1. R C Dean

            What if the character is a male?